"​I giggled all the way to the food bowl. So they are calling this year "The Year of the Dog"? How is this year any different from last year or the one before that or so on? From the day my one-and-only chose me at Animal Control in San Francisco, I have been living la vida perro!

Imagine being admired for pooing and peeing! For eating or not eating! For sleeping or not sleeping. For playing with the stuffed cow that has 16 squeakers in it and tearing out all its innards to the unstinting approval of all around you! And then your one-and-only vacuums up the mess without a complaint. If you were to glance up from where you hunker under the coffee table, you would see a smile of adoration. Indeed, la vida perro!Stand at the door and voila it opens. Run to the back door and pretty soon it too will open. Write without punctuation and nobody scolds, not even a former English teacher who has set aside the book of do and don’t because I am who I am! This is the miracle of la vida perro!

Wake up at 3a.m. and shake. Someone hears and gets out of bed to take me outside and once I have done what is natural after hours of sleeping takes me into bed and cuddles despite the fact that I am shedding. And by 6a.m. if it fits my schedule, my one-and-only invites me to don my blue harness to go in the car for an early coffee run after which I will nose around the empty lot abutting the coffee shop, sniffing while the sun comes up. I call this la vida perro!

Indeed, living in Los Osos, I meet so many dogs, big and small. They are walked singly or in droves. Their walkers always take care to avoid me when our paths cross because – as my one-and-only tells them “Foxie is unpredictable.” She says this while stationing herself in my path and tightening my leash. This cautionary behavior is a good thing because I do not like other animals, or at least I think I don’t, although I do remember the year I stayed two weeks at a kennel and made friends with another small dog. Whenever my one and only called from Ashland to check up on me, the folks at Happy Tails reported my good behavior and happiness. What does that say about me? Of course, I avoid the Rottweilers from across the street and won’t go near leapy dogs. I have lunged at tiny dogs, so who’s to say I can be trusted. Always, all is forgiven. More evidence that many of us four-legged creatures celebrate the Year of the Dog, every year. I celebrate the dogs that avoid me as well as the dogs who get close and we wag our tails. I love where I live and I love that I live la vida perro!